Vicious (16 page)

I did as he said, only half aware of my actions as my mind ran over his comment. Had someone finally bought the cold, invincible persona that I had been trying to put on all this time?
Fat lot of good that it did me now.

I lay face down on the bed, the fabric smelled fresh, like the ocean. He took each arm and stretched it
to fasten it with cold steel to the posts. Something softer was wrapped around my ankles as my legs were stretched wide. I should have been grateful that I was on my stomach, so not all of me was exposed. But with my legs stretched out like that, I felt all of my bottom half was open and on display.

A
hand stroked my hair. “I’m not going to gag you because I want to hear you cry out,” he whispered. My mouth was dry as his hands slid down my spine and over the curve of my buttocks. “Have you ever done this before? Any of the foster fathers you slept with, did they ever get off on doing things to make you cry?”

My eyes widened. How did he know about David?

“And your high school boyfriend, what about him, did he have any particular perversions?” The same soft tone was mocking. I twisted my head as much as I could to look at him.

“Shut up, don’t you talk about
him!”

He laughed softly as he used both hands to rub my ass. “Now, now,” he cooed. “It doesn’t look like you’re in any position to argue or give orders now, does it?”

I led my head drop back down to the bed, nearly panting with a rage that was at odds with the gentle, soothing rubbing motions he was making on my skin. “I’m warming up your flesh, preparing it.” I felt his lips on my bottom as he began to kiss it. He sucked the flesh into his mouth and gave tiny, teasing nips. “Believe it or not, Violet, I am being very kind to you right now.” A bite made me squirm, and I felt instant shame at how good it made me feel, how
he
made me feel. I felt a finger swipe between my legs and I gasped sharply.

“You’re wet
.” That finger slowly dipped inside me. “Honey, you are absolutely soaking. Tell me, are you turned on right now?”  I stayed silent, burning with humiliation at being trussed up and controlled like this. “Not going to answer?” he mocked. “Don’t worry, let me show you the evidence.” The finger was brought up to my mouth and slid in between my open lips. “Taste it,
suck
it. I want you to know how good you taste, Violet.” I closed my eyes around the finger and he slid it in and out of my mouth in a fucking motion. “Good girl.” He drew it out slowly, before painting my lips with the wetness. “Do you want me to keep touching you with this finger?”

God
, yes.

I nodded, biting my lip.
His fingers returned back down there at an agonizingly slow pace, once they were where I yearned for them to be, he began to manipulate and tease until I was thrashing against him, trying to gain more satisfaction. Twice, he nearly brought me to the brink before withdrawing, each time it was punctuated with a quick slap to either of my butt cheeks. The sharp sting didn’t linger too long as he began to stroke me again with those cruel, but magical fingers.

Then he finally withdrew from playing with me all together, and bit down on the right side of my bottom. I flinched and he gave a s
oft laugh. “I think it’s time I showed you the sadist in me.”

My eyes widened. How could he go from being so pleasing and heated, to something so cruel? He ran the crop down the length of my body, starting at my neck, tracing
the spine like it was a pathway down to rest in the centre of my ass. I tensed, waiting for awful pain and squeezed my eyes shut, digging my nails into the palms of my hands. Every second that ticked increased my anticipation and dread until—

A click sounded, and my wrists were free. I opened my eyes and raised my head. Brody was down at the end of the bed now, releasing my ankles. Bewildered, I crawled up onto my knees. “What are you doing?”

He shrugged, taking the cuffs and crop back to the armoire and putting them away tidily. “What? You didn’t want me to, so I didn’t.” He closed the doors and turned back to the bed. “I’m not a complete monster, Violet.” And he actually winked at me while I kneeled there with my mouth open. He started to strip off his clothes. “You can go back to your own room if you want to, I know you like your privacy.”

“I—uh.”
What was I trying to say?

He lets his pants drop to the floor. “What?”

Finally, I managed to say, “You get me all worked up and then dismiss me? That’s sadistic in its self.”

He grinned as he crawled on the bed. “I didn’t dismiss you. And if you want to fuck, just say so.”

“I—I’m not going to beg you.”  He was the most confusing man. That made him grin even harder. He sat resting against the headboard.

“I love the idea of you begging, but it
’s late and I’m tired so—“ He grabbed my arm and pulled me effortlessly onto his lap so I straddled him. “You can do all the work,” he finished. “Is that pussy of yours still wet?”

I made an exasperated noise before thinking, fuck it. I wanted
, needed, to come. I gripped his cock firmly before lifting myself onto it and sliding down him slowly. “Does that feel wet to you, Mr Sadist?” Now it was his turn to bite his lip and nod silently. I grinned.

But he tried to kiss me, and I
moved my face. He didn’t argue, just settled for kissing my neck hungrily.

Of course, I came first.

I curled up beside him, not touching, of course.
The room was dark now, and as always, that what made me the most comfortable. Visions of me naked on his lap, bouncing up and down as if I had not a care in the world, ran through my mind. Was that girl really me? She seemed so normal.

I was about to drift off to sleep, when his cell rang. He cursed and grabbed it off the night stand.

“Yeah?”

Whoev
er was on the other end made him sit up and turn the lamp on.

“Fuck. Okay. Thanks.”

He sighed, throwing his phone back on the stand before letting his head hit the pillow. “Listen, I’m probably going to be arrested tomorrow, or taken in for questioning at least.”

“What?” It was my turn to sit up, the sheet falling down to reveal my breasts. He grinned as they hovered over his face.

“Nice view,” he commented.

“What do you mean you
’re getting arrested? Why are you acting like this isn’t a big deal?” I pulled the sheet up to cover myself.

“It’s happened before, but they’ve never really got anything substantial on me. It never gets to court. My father has some powerful friends.”

I lay back down beside him. “So, is it true that your Dad is some kind of underworld figure?”

He gave a quiet laugh. “You could say that. But more and more of our operations are legitimate. Like the restaurants and the hotels.”

I took a breath. “So, when Lisa said you took care of the dirty stuff, she was telling the truth.”

His smile faded. “You don’t need to know anything about that business, Violet. None of that will affect you.”

“I don’t care about that. I’ve always looked out for myself. This,” I waved a hand around the opulent room, “this is just a dream. Reality will come crashing down at any moment and I’ll go back to what I’ve always known. I just want to know something about you. You act like you know everything about me, tell me something about you.”

He stared at me, before shifting his eyes to the ceiling. “What
do you want to know?” he asked guardedly.

“I don’t know. Tell me about Lisa and you.”

He licked his lips. “Okay, I can do that, I guess.”

I waited, and he turned to me and frowned. “Stop staring. The story isn’t that interesting.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

He looked almost amused. “Okay. Lisa is older than me, but she was always the hottest girl in the neighbourhood. She
never looked twice at me though. I was the kid of a trashy single mother and dirt poor. When I was a teenager, my mom died and my Dad finally acknowledged my existence. Suddenly I had stuff, don’t get me wrong, I had to work for it. And I did. I worked hard. But I couldn’t help but flash it round the old neighbourhood, and finally I caught the eye of luscious Lisa. I swear, the girl masturbates with dollar bills up her twat. She got her claws into me so fast. I even introduced her to Michael, and you know the rest.”

“That must have hurt.”

He shrugged. “I never thought much of him anyway, I always wanted to please him, but at that stage I didn’t give a fuck about that, I just wanted to get as much power and money of my own that I could, and he was the way to do it. I caught her giving him a blowjob. Neither of them seemed to care that I caught them too much, and suddenly they were together.” He frowned. “I don’t know why he married her though, and didn’t just keep her like he kept his other woman and then throw her away the minute he got tired of her, like he did my mother…” Was that anger?

“Thanks for telling me,” I told him.

He reached over and turned off the lamp. “Good night, Violet.”

“Good night, Brody.”

I woke up to him standing over me. He was fully dressed. “I’ve got a meeting this morning. I’ll get Lawson to let you know what happens today. He’ll make sure you’ve got enough money to take care of yourself if I’m gone more than a day,” he said curtly before leaving. The slight warmth that he had shown the night before was gone, and that unsettled me. Scrambling out of bed, I grabbed a robe that sat on edge of the bed and pulled over me as I ran after him.

“Brody!”
I got to him just before he went through the door. “I just wanted to say, um, good luck for today.”

He stared at me for so long
that I felt stupid for what I’d just said. I was about to turn to go, when he spoke. “I got that guy to mug you.”

Something like ice travelled down my spine.
“You what?”

“I paid
that guy to mug you. I gave him instructions to get your bag and he had no choice but to follow my orders.”

“Why?” My voice cracked slight. “He
hurt
me.”

His jaw was firm and
as always, he was absent of emotion. “It doesn’t matter why. I just thought you should know what kind of person I am.” And with that he closed the door after himself.

I stared at the closed door for at least a full minute, trying to process what he said and why he had said that. Was it because he actually shared something with me last night?
Because he actually acted like a normal person for once?

I spent the day with Connie. I didn’t say anything about
Brody, in fact, I made sure to avoid the topic of him all together. Connie babbled on about how the apartment she shared with Simon was awful compared to the one they house sat together but she was going to stick with him anyway.

I nearly spat out my coffee.
“Really? Hasn’t he served his purpose? You don’t even seem to like him that much.”

She gave me a serious look. “He might be a prat, but he looks out for me and he’s fun and he’s smart…” She let out a breath.
“I hate being alone, Violet. I’ve been alone my whole life. Even before my Mom went to prison she was more interested in her boyfriends and partying than me. And then I went in the system and I got passed along from place to place, never belonging anywhere. No family, no real friends, no future. Just…nothing. I used to lie awake at night and wonder what would happen if a hole opened up in the earth and sucked me down with it? I wondered who would care…” she trailed off.

I looked at her coffee. “Did you ask for whiskey in there? Because you’re babbling like you’re drunk.”

She laughed, but her eyes were still shiny with tears. “Simon makes me happy. I feel like I belong with him. I don’t love him, honestly, I have no idea what that even is, but I’m not lonely when I’m with him.”

I thought about what she said as we walked along the beach. I knew what the everlasting loneliness was
and how is stretched on like a moonless night sky: uninterrupted and formidable. Only with Damon had that feeling subsided. And Brody…although I hated to admit it. I half hated him, especially after this latest revelation, but there was some kind of security in knowing that I was paid for and looked after to an extent.

“I’m happy for you then,” I told her finally. “I get where you’re coming from.”

She smiled. “Sometimes I feel like we spend so long just surviving, that we forget how to enjoy life. And if we don’t enjoy life, then what’s the point in living at all? We may as well just lie down and die.”

I mulled over her words all afternoon and into the early evening as I made my way back to Brody’s place. It was cold and empty, and truthfully, I didn’t know if I had
been wanting him to be there or not. I started drinking, pouring mixes into his designer hand blown glasses and drinking until I felt happier. And then I grabbed a bottle of champagne and put it in an ice bucket. Eventually, the door opened. Brody entered, he looked tired and paused when he saw me, then he slowly came and sat beside me.

I opened the champagne. “Since you’re here, I thought we could celebrate your freedom.”
The bubbly liquid gushed out into the two flutes and I proudly handed one to him, spilling it slightly. He didn’t seem to care, just putting it to his lips and taking a sip.